You have access to info on the technicians and can see which ones are available for immediate support. Good choice of pricing options. Most techs have pay-by-the-minute options. Money-back guarantee.

Cons

Less consistent in tools, techs, and processes than some other services. No toll-free number for those whose PCs won't access the Internet.

Bottom Line

This clearinghouse for tech-support agents certifies freelance technicians, lets you examine their qualifications and leave feedback, and offers a wide choice of pricing options and specialties.

The Four Steps to Support

Each SupportSpace session consists of four steps: Assess & Pay, Resolve, Report, and Feedback. After a brief text exchange in which you tell the technician your problem and he proposes a solution and informs you of his fee (either flat rate or hourly), the chat window displays the link, "Click here to enter payment details," and this takes you to a secure Web page where you can enter your credit card number and so on. Brad wanted only $21 for a session that ended up lasting nearly an houra bargain. And he even suggested I contact my ISP first to see if the Web-browsing slowdown I was experiencing originated with the provider rather than with my system.

Brad used a free trial of TeamViewer to take control of my PC, and occasionally a window would pop up saying "this session was sponsored by [insert tech company name here]." I was sort of surprised that SupportSpace hadn't provided its techs with a licensed remote-control app, and said so. It turns out that it doesBrad just preferred this client, as did some of the other techs I used. They're also supplied with file-transfer software, but instead most of them use the remote-control software for that purpose. I should note that Brad was always careful to ask my permission to do anything with my machinea testament to SupportSpace's training and a courtesy not evident in other similar services that run rampant over your machine, changing settings and deleting files without permission.

I'd told Brad that my Internet connection had slowed down, so he asked whether I had a high-speed connection, and went into my Internet Explorer settings to delete cookies and temporary files. He also changed some settings under the IE Internet Options dialog's Advanced tab. He recommended that I upgrade to IE7 (he even took me to the download page for this) or Firefox, saying the latter was faster and more secure. Since some of the crapware I'd installed sporadically launched up pop-ups, he enabled pop-up blocking in IE.

Then Brad downloaded and ran a free-trial version of TuneUp Utilities 2008again, I'd have expected SupportSpace to furnish its techs with licensed utilities, as firedog, support.com and other help sites do. But this is a freelance clearinghouse service, I suppose. In any case, TuneUp is an excellent, wide-ranging tool that found 35 system problems and 48 application problems, which it fixed. Brad then ran that tool's defragger and recommended that I upgrade my paltry 384MB of RAM. No arguments there.

That was the good part. Brad also missed some obvious things that would slow down my browsing. Foremost among these were the three extra toolbars plainly taking a chunk out of the top of my browser window, and one of whichHotBarverges on malware. Since I'd complained about my Internet speed, I'd expected him to check my IE add-ons; if he had done so, he would have found the nefarious ShopperReports, which kept sprouting pop-ups even after blocking was enabled. I also had BearShare and Morpheus running; file sharing is notorious for sucking up bandwidth. He should have advised me to remove them, or at least turn them off when I want to browse the Web.

I should note that SupportSpace supplies its techs with a consultation feature, which they can use to request help from another tech on the service if there's an issue they're unable to deal with on their own. But since each tech is an independent contractor, they're not really motivated to answer other techs' questions, and the techs I talked with said the feature was of limited value.Next: Another Tech, Another Result

Michael Muchmore is PC Magazine’s lead analyst for software and Web applications. A native New Yorker, he has at various times headed up PC Magazine’s coverage of Web development, enterprise software, and display technologies. Michael cowrote one of the first overviews of Web Services for a general audience. Before that he worked on PC Magazine’s Solutions section, which covered programming techniques as well as tips on using popular office software. Most recently he covered services and software for ExtremeTech.com.
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